EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Authorities in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua say they’re investigating several recent murders whose brutal nature puts them in the category of “atrocities.”

On Friday, two men were found hanged from an overpass in the southern edge of Juarez. A few days earlier, a vehicle with three homicide victims inside was set on fire in the cartel-plagued Valley of Juarez.

An atrocity is defined as a torture-slaying, dismemberment, incineration, mass shooting, or the use of extreme nonlethal violence against a woman, among others.

The recent violent deaths show another shift in cartel activity.

For the past few years, these criminal organizations cashed in on migrant smuggling. But a massive and ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration has essentially stopped the flow of people trying to get into the U.S.

The presence of federal and state troops and military vehicles at the border, as well as the Border Patrol, the border wall, and tons of new razor wire, has prompted the cartels to revert to drug trafficking and find new ways to get their product into the U.S.

Related content

• Bodies hanged from highway overpass in Juarez
• Cartel smuggling, aggression up on the high seas
• Smugglers still active on the outskirts of El Paso
• Woman gets 10 years in prison for smuggling attempt in which migrant died
• Members of multi-state migrant smuggling gang plead guilty to conspiracy charges

In this episode of Border Report Live, correspondent Julian Resendiz examines the uptick in cartel violence in Mexican border states. Plus, as cartels seek new smuggling routes into the U.S., many are finding that the best way to get here is through the water.

Plus, authorities are also cracking down on crime, unveiling a new list of the border’s “Most Wanted.”

Join the award-winning Border Report team at 1:30 p.m. CT Tuesdays and 3 p.m. CT Thursdays at borderreport.com for a weekly, live, in-depth discussion about people living, working and migrating along the U.S.-Mexico border.

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You can also watch past episodes of the Border Report Live, highlighting not only immigration and border security, but cartel violence in Mexico and the countries’ ongoing water dispute on the border.

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